Curated playlist

PlayStation 2 games

Street Fighter EX3Street Fighter EX3 launched with the PlayStation 2 in Japan on March 4, 2000.
Capcom Fighting EvolutionCapcom Fighting Evolution was built from a cancelled 3D fighting game. It salvaged Capcom Fighting All-Stars.
Suikoden TacticsSuikoden Tactics is both a prequel and a sequel to Suikoden IV. The 2005 PlayStation 2 game uses two time periods.
Hyper Street Fighter IIHyper Street Fighter II, released by Capcom in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, contains only 17 unique characters. Yet those fighters appear in 65 different versions, each one carried over from an earlier arcade game. That number turns a…
Super Street Fighter II TurboIn Japan, no arcade game earned more in 1994 than Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Capcom built it for arcade cabinets as the fifth installment in the Street Fighter II sub-series, following Super Street Fighter II from 1993. Oddly, it did…
Silent Hill: OriginsSilent Hill: Origins was rewritten in one week after its first version became a dark comedy.
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC ChaosTwo fighters born in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos later joined other games. Violent Ken and Serious Mr. Karate outlived it.
Street Fighter Alpha AnthologyCompleting every game in Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is the only way to reach Hyper Street Fighter Alpha.
Suikoden IVIn Suikoden IV, a cursed rune jumps to the nearest person when its bearer dies. It slowly drains its bearer's life.
Capcom Classics CollectionCapcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 chose the Breakout-style Block Block over Super Street Fighter II.
Silent Hill 3In Silent Hill 3, a roller coaster kills 17-year-old Heather Mason, who then wakes in a mall.
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a 2004 action-adventure game from Rockstar North, gave players one of the most repeated lines in gaming. Early in the story, a mission called "Wrong Side of the Tracks" goes badly, and Big Smoke shouts, "All…
God of War (2005 video game)In God of War, a 2005 game from Santa Monica Studio, a Spartan named Kratos kills a Hydra for the sea god Poseidon. The victory brings him no relief. For ten years he has served the Olympian gods. Now he is tired of the work and the…
Grand Theft Auto: Vice CityGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, a 2002 action-adventure game from Rockstar North, sold more than 500,000 copies within 24 hours of its release. Within two days it had reached 1.4 million, which made it the fastest-selling game in history at…
Resident Evil – Code: VeronicaIn December 1998, three months after she escaped Raccoon City, Claire Redfield raids an Umbrella Corporation facility in Paris. She is searching for her brother Chris, and she is caught. That capture opens Resident Evil Code: Veronica, a…
God of War IIGod of War II begins with a god being killed by his own king. Kratos, the Spartan warrior who became the God of War by killing Ares, joins an attack on the city of Rhodes. A giant eagle swoops in and drains a huge share of his powers. It…
Capcom vs. SNK 2Capcom vs. SNK 2 may be the first game with online play between rival consoles. This worked only in Japan.
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VIIDirge of Cerberus was a shooter built around a hero once locked in a coffin. It arrived in 2006 for PlayStation 2.
Grand Theft Auto IIIGrand Theft Auto III began with an art director's complaint about the games of his day. Aaron Garbut felt that most of them were "a thing you played". He wanted this one to be "a place you lived in". The core team behind that ambition was…
Silent Hill 2In Silent Hill 2, James Sunderland gets a letter from his wife, who died three years ago.
Silent Hill: Shattered MemoriesThe 2009 horror game Silent Hill: Shattered Memories has no combat at all. Harry can only run, hide and use flares.
Street Fighter III: 3rd StrikeStreet Fighter III: 3rd Strike sold modestly in 1999, yet IGN later named it the greatest fighting game ever made.
Final Fantasy X-2Final Fantasy X-2 built its costume-changing battles from magical girl anime and Charlie's Angels.
Persona 3Persona 3 asks its player to press a gun-shaped device against their own head and fire. The device is called an Evoker, and the shot summons a Persona, a physical form of the shooter's psyche. Atlus developed this role-playing game, which…
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake EaterMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater sends the player up an extremely tall ladder for roughly three minutes, with a vocal theme song as the only company. Fans and critics singled out the climb as one of the series' most memorable moments. Some…
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of LibertyEvery trailer for Metal Gear Solid 2 showed Solid Snake in fights that Raiden had. Players had never heard of him.
Final Fantasy XFinal Fantasy X shipped in Japan in 2001 and sold more than 2.14 million units on its first day alone, including 1.4 to 1.5 million pre-orders. A million copies moved within hours of release. Square had expected modest returns from a…
Final Fantasy XIIFinal Fantasy XII lets players program their characters to fight on their own. It drew on American football plays.
Silent Hill 4: The RoomIn Silent Hill 4: The Room, the safest place becomes the deadliest. Henry's apartment first heals him, then hurts him.
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (video game)The Harvey Birdman video game borrowed its courtroom system from Phoenix Wright.
Namco × CapcomCapcom broke an industry norm by teaming up with its rival Namco. The 2005 game Namco x Capcom never left Japan.
Star Wars: The Force UnleashedIn Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a small child pulls Darth Vader's lightsaber from his grip.
Suikoden VIn Suikoden V, the Prince's trusted aunt betrays him at the moment he could end the war.
The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation DividedThe History Channel: Civil War, subtitled A Nation Divided, is a first-person shooter that gives the player twelve different soldiers across twelve battles. Cauldron HQ developed it, and Activision Value and the History Channel released it…
Fate/stay nightFate/stay night began as an unfinished college story. Kinoko Nasu finished only one of its three routes in 1999.
Tetsujin 28-goIn the manga Tetsujin 28-go, a ten-year-old boy inherits his dead father's giant war robot.
Final Fantasy XIIn 2025, so many new players joined Final Fantasy XI that the server Asura closed to new characters.
Persona 4Persona 4 is a 2008 role-playing game from the Japanese developer Atlus, and it opens on a puzzle that sounds like a ghost story. In a small rural town, bodies are found dangling from television antennas, and no one can say what killed…
Half-Life (video game)Half-Life, the 1998 first-person shooter from Valve Corporation, was budgeted on the assumption that it would sell around 180,000 copies in its entire lifetime. That forecast came from Gabe Newell, one of the studio's two founders. Yet the…
Suikoden IIISuikoden III tells one war from three sides, with no heroes or villains. Players live through each view in turn.
Shadow of the ColossusIn Shadow of the Colossus, a young man named Wander lifts his sword into the sunlight, and the blade throws beams of light across the land. The beams converge when the sword points toward the next giant. Sony Computer Entertainment…
Resident Evil 4Resident Evil 4 is a 2005 survival horror game from Capcom, released first for the GameCube, and by March 2025 it had sold 15.2 million copies. Its hero is Leon S. Kennedy, a special agent dropped into rural Spain on a rescue mission.…
Higurashi When They CryHigurashi When They Cry is a Japanese murder mystery, released as a dōjin soft visual novel by the circle 07th Expansion. It opens in June 1983, when a boy named Keiichi Maebara moves to the village of Hinamizawa and befriends five girls.…